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BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo and the New York
State Department of Health are teaming up to conduct a study to
investigate the incidence of autoimmune and respiratory diseases in
the Bellevue neighborhood of the Buffalo suburb of Cheektowaga.

Residents of the neighborhood, located near three landfills and
a stone quarry, have been concerned about what they believe is a
high incidence of autoimmune and respiratory diseases due to
environmental hazards. While previous studies conducted by the
state health department in ZIP Codes that include the neighborhood
have not shown an elevated incidence of disease, residents have
continued to call for additional, more geographically specific
studies.

Starting this week, nine UB students, accompanied by
neighborhood residents, will go door-to-door to gather health
information on current residents. Health information also will be
gathered on former residents who wish to participate.

The collaboration between UB, the state health department, Town
of Cheektowaga and citizens groups will compare rates of these
diseases in this neighborhood to a nearby neighborhood with similar
demographics.

"This survey is the first of its kind in the country," said
Joseph A. Gardella, Ph.D., UB professor of chemistry and principal
investigator on the project, "because it was designed by the
community itself, along with the collaboration of UB and the New
York State Department of Health." Associate dean for external
affairs in the UB College of Arts and Sciences, Gardella is an
environmental chemist who has won local and national awards for
working with citizens groups to resolve conflicts concerning the
environment.

The study, which targets a total of about 3,000 individuals in
each neighborhood, was designed to go to the heart of a problem
that traditionally has dogged efforts to determine links between
environmental hazards and human health.

"This is a constant tension in these community environmental
health studies," said Gardella. To get statistically sound results,
he explained, the survey must cover a large area, but communities
feel that large survey areas end up diluting any local
environmental impacts.

"The state health department worked with the community to help
the residents understand how the number of participants affects the
statistical validity of a survey for individual diseases," said
Gardella.

Unlike diseases such as asthma or cancer, where hospitalizations
or new cases are reported nationally and are a good measure of the
impact of the disease on a community, data on the prevalence of
autoimmune disease in the population are relatively scarce, he
added.

The UB project aims to combat this problem by ensuring very high
participation, requiring residents to be approached individually, a
method that would be prohibitively expensive if the state were to
do it, Gardella explained.

"That's where UB comes in," he noted.

Coordinated by a UB doctoral student in anthropology, the group
of students who will be visiting with residents includes
undergraduate students studying anthropology and graduate students
in geography, all of whom attended formal training sessions.

"Our goal here is to try and evaluate scientifically the
citizens' concerns about the prevalence of disease in their
community," said Gardella.

The survey project, funded in part by UB's Environment and
Society Institute, follows two previous efforts by the state health
department -- and covering larger geographic areas -- to evaluate
the incidence of cancer and respiratory illness in the area.

Most of the cancer data resulting from those studies did not
show any excesses, with the exception of a significantly high rate
of uterine cancer, which could not be explained easily by the
scientific and medical literature, said Gardella. The state health
department is following up on those results with an additional
cancer study targeted to practically the same neighborhood that is
being studied for the prevalence of autoimmune and respiratory
disease.

Participants in the UB/state health department study will
complete surveys without study representatives present and mail
them, postage-paid, directly to the UB researchers. The
confidentiality of participants and the privacy of health
information will be maintained and community members will not have
access to the surveys or the data concerning individuals or
households.

The study protocol was written by the state health department
with input from UB, the Cheektowaga Citizens' Coalition and the
Erie County Department of Health. Data collection, management and
analysis will be organized by UB. The draft summary report will be
written jointly by UB and the state health department. It will be
circulated among members of the community and other interested
parties before it is finalized.